OUR ANCESTORS. 221 



central French and Spanish regions learned to speak 

 the dialect of their Celtic lords, as they afterwards 

 learned to speak that of their Roman conquerors. 



As yet the Celts had not attempted to attack Britain, 

 which had long since been isolated from, the continent, 

 and could now only be invaded by a fleet of boats 

 crossing the silver streak of sea. Before they took 

 that last step in the conquest of Western Europe, 

 they had learned the use of bronze, from which they 

 manufactured beautiful axes, spears, and shields, 

 besides producing many tools for more peaceable 

 purposes. The employment of bronze enabled the 

 Celts to make such improvements in ship -building 

 that they could cross the Channel to Britain, which 

 they found inhabited only by the small dark Euskarians, 

 who were now at a still greater disadvantage, seeing 

 that they were only armed with stone tomahawks, 

 while their big assailants were armed with " weapons 

 of precision/' in the shape of bronze battle-axes, 

 lances, and spears. The consequence was that the 

 Celts soon overran nearly the whole island, and quickly 

 subdued the better part of it to their own dominion. 

 In the south-eastern plains, near the continent, they 

 apparently settled in great numbers, so that when the 

 Romans came they found that part of Britain mainly 

 inhabited by a tall, fair-haired, light-skinned Aryan 

 Celtic race. But in the west, the Celts only settled 

 in comparatively small numbers, as lords of the soil, 

 holding in subjection a large servile population of dark 

 Euskarians ; while in South Wales, and apparently in 



